DIY Art

SO...How was everybody's Halloweeeeen?

We had our yearly bash and I did a lot of little DIY crafts for the big event.  Tons of decorating!  Which also meant tons to clean up and take down for next year.  A few Instagrams from the night just for fun:

(Top Left:DIY Creepy No-Flame Candles // Top Right:I was a kitty for Halloween.  Look at my cool contacts! // Bottom Left:My husband the Slender man and pirate wench sister // Bottom Right:Bloody laundry)

This was the most effort that I have put into the decor so far, but since the moment has passed I'll be storing all those ideas (and more) away to share with you before next year's Halloween season!  How's that for a cliff hanger?

Once I got all the creepy blood-spatters off the walls I realized that they were looking all too plain.  I had a few things up, but they were more "just for now" fixes I threw up a couple years ago to spruce up the walls until I came up with something truly worthy.  BUT, you know how it is and that stuff just gets put on the back burner sometimes.

I was so sick of looking at the tired layout and decided to bring it all down and start from scratch!  The first step to doing this was to remove the dusty floral fabric that I had wrapped over a white canvas and reuse the canvas.  I was in a really hurry to get rid of this look so I only have a crappy photo of how it was looking before.

You can get a basic canvas in all sorts of sizes from any Joanns or even Wal-Mart: but if you want to get super creative with what you have on hand I would suggest using the top off of a shoe box (or even a scrap of plywood from the garage..?)

Then I surfed the web for some DIY art inspiration including my 2 favorite inspirational resources: Pinterest and Houzz.  I probably found way too much inspiration, but I knew I wanted something light/bright and graphic.  I finally narrowed it down to this idea from The Embellished Nest!  Her take on this diy idea is gorgeous, but for my canvas I was looking to go super simple.  I followed her tutorial for measuring and placing my painter's tape.

Then I did my own thing by just using a gold spray paint that I already had and spraying nice and evenly across my taped canvas.  I laid on the gold very heavily toward the bottom and just misted it onto the top for a cool ombre effect.

Here's my result:

Not the greatest pictures.  It's so gloomy out today!

For free.99, I'm really happy with how this turned out and I can't wait to show off the new layout once it's actually on the walls.  This is one of those beautiful ideas that you can twist and bend to your will, I love it!  You could do any pattern with the tape, switch up paint colors, try out different tools (paintbrushes, foam brushes, your hands, makeup sponges...)  Go crazy with it.

Sometimes you just need to take a step back and tear it all down!  A fresh start is never a bad thing.  When you're stuck in a decorating rut, try it!